Vampires and Evil Grandpas

[Loose Canon]

In my own defense, and before I get hammered here (which I have coming!), I’d like to ‘splain!

Apparently, there is a craze in this country regarding some goofy vampire-type stuff known as the Twilight Saga. Personally, I know nothing about it and what little I have found I find to be utterly ridiculous. I say “goofy” but it is apparently a zillion dollar movie series and quite popular. Just not really my cup of tea!

My granddaughter and I were sitting in the editing bay yutzing around with some photos of her (first mistake. Divas are soooooo demanding) and we started getting a little wild! She is hard into this vampire deal and wanted to know if I could make her look like one. At the time I didn’t know what the heck she was talking about and didn’t really want to fool with it anyway.

Since it doesn't matter what I want I Googled it (second mistake. I found out that its true, they do exist). It seems that they are pasty white, have very red lips, golden eyes if they are a vegetarian (who the heck ever heard of a vegetarian vampire?), and burgundy eyes if they are not. Whoop-ti-do.

So move over Christopher Lee! What good is it to have a Papa with Photoshop if you can’t have a little fun from time to time?

I may be Evil, but we had fun anyway! And besides, “that is soooo cooool, Papa”! I always wondered why she didn’t like garlic and was a little nervous around wooden stakes!

I’ll never get a serious photo out of her again!

Lessons learned:
1. Never let granddaughters in the editing bay.
2. Never ask stupid questions about granddaughter’s passing fads.
3. Always believe in Magic!
4. If I'm actually going to do this, next time light it a little more dramatically (I had no idea the shoot would de-escalate to this!).
5. Next time she wants fangs!

I’ll probably get an earful about what a bad grandpa I am from her Mom and Dad, so if you folks feel the need to chime in, feel free!

[Goldcoastgolfer]

It is the responsibility of grandparents to spoil their grandchildren rotten and the responsibility of the parents to just deal with it

One criticism though - you need to make her skin sparkle more! (my wife is a Twi-hard fan - takes her back to her teens I think)

[kezmal]

I think you've done brilliantly Terry. I bet your Granddaughter thinks you're super. And contrary to what Malcolm says, I am most definitely not a Twi-hard fan!!! Oh and they dont sparkle unless they're in the sunlight heh heh

[arith]

Here's a vampire story for you:

http://www.angelfire.com/realm/shade...shvampfolk.htm


and the village is about 3 miles from me and stangely there isn't any houses in it.

Look in google maps for Drakelow, Staffordshire and you get street view, only a farm left. <yikes>

[Loose Canon]

Here's a vampire story for you:

http://www.angelfire.com/realm/shade...shvampfolk.htm


and the village is about 3 miles from me and stangely there isn't any houses in it.

Look in google maps for Drakelow, Staffordshire and you get street view, only a farm left. <yikes>

Hi Steve!

Haven't seen you in a while! Good to see you again! Pretty gruesome stuff there! You ever go out there and nose around?

It is the responsibility of grandparents to spoil their grandchildren rotten and the responsibility of the parents to just deal with it

One criticism though - you need to make her skin sparkle more!

No doubt, Malcolm! When I'm wearing the Grandpa Hat, those kids get pretty rotten! Even (maybe especially) if it means turning them into vampires!

I guess I didn't really think this thing through, as usual! Sparkle, huh! I'm still trying to get past the vegetarian thing!

I think you've done brilliantly Terry. I bet your Granddaughter thinks you're super. And contrary to what Malcolm says, I am most definitely not a Twi-hard fan!!! Oh and they dont sparkle unless they're in the sunlight.

Thank you, Kerry!

I did get a few "Papa is Pretty Cool After All Points" for this! They're getting harder to come by as they grow up! Granny & I hold less appeal and cramp their style more as they grow up and they turn their interests outward. You know, boys, friends, clothes, makeup, trying to fit in somehow. The usual teen Rites of Passage. I just hope they survive it and I have Faith they will. And in the meant time, good ole Papa will be right there for them! And thank you for setting Malcolm straight! I suspected he was exaggerating!

Things sure have changed since Abe & I chased vampires through the night back in the Goode Olde Days! Back then, come daylight you could knock off and get some breakfast and a nap! Darn things would either be back in the coffin or turn to dust in the sunlight so we didn't have to worry about adding skin sparkle to their photos! In fact, they couldn't be photographed at all because they wouldn't show up on film. Nor would they cast a reflection in a mirror! I guess we have digital to thank for the ability to now photograph our cute little grand vampires!

I need get with the times!

[Harpo]

Terry, This is a MUCH better way to go about being a Cool Gramps than what some grandparents (especially grandmas) do by trying to dress like a teeny bopper! Some things do NOT go well together like Guys in beer bellies in speedos.

[Donald]

You're probably going to end up with a queue of her friends wanting you to photograph them and then give it the same treatment ... all because their rotten, stinking, spoilsport, old-fashioned, stupid parents won't let them do it for real, but that really really nice grandpa's know how to fix that.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

You're probably going to end up with a queue of her friends wanting you to photograph them and then give it the same treatment ... all because their rotten, stinking, spoilsport, old-fashioned, stupid parents won't let them do it for real, but that really really nice grandpa's know how to fix that.

Ha ha! They'll be asking for group vampire shots!

[Andrew76]

Nice job Terry - I really like this one. Very, very, realistic with the modifications. Great job - now I need to practice more!

[speedneeder]

Looks great! Much better than my attempt
I couldn't get the lips right and grew frustrated.
Any tips for your conversion?
I had the disadvantage of dealing with an old wrinkly face, so making the skin was quite challenging as well!

[Loose Canon]

Best I can remember Brian (its been a while and I’ve been insanely busy lately) this was a portrait that I processed in color with my usual flow. Got it where I wanted it, then started the conversion because I wanted to keep a “human” version!

The skin was a masked layer of the entire shot converted to black and white, brushed in (just the skin) and opacity adjusted to suit (about 50%) so it wouldn’t look too pasty and a little less “staged”. Got rid of any stray hairs in the first processing of the color image and got a nice, semi well defined face area to brush in the b&w layer. If hair is in the way, it is a pain to brush in the skin layer without turning the hair(s) to b&w. She was wearing the blue eye makeup so I left that blue.

The eye iris’ were selected and each iris put on its own layer, minus the pupils (didn’t want to change those), so I could adjust each one individually since her left is more in shadow. Used a little bit of feather for these selections so it would look a little more natural and less “abrupt”. Then a hue/saturation adjustment layer added and linked to each iris layer exclusively to color, saturate, and brighten them (individually) as necessary. Burned a tiny “edge” around the outer edge of the iris (but on the inside colored part, not on the whites). Did a bit of dodge around the outside of the pupil (again on the colored part) both with super tiny soft brushes set to low opacity. Whitened the whites some.

The lips were fairly tightly selected (in the color version layer, not the b&w version layer- just the lips and not the corners of her mouth). I feathered the soup out of this selection to make it look natural and in case I needed to brush them in or out to get a natural look. Then set this selection on its own layer to colorize/adjust them. Added a hue/saturation layer and linked it exclusively to the lip layer. Used this to color, saturate, brighten/darken as needed and adjusted opacity to suit.

As usual, I always use layer copies and not the original background layer so in case you blow it and have to start over…

On top of all that (at the very top of the layer structure) I added a global hue/sat layer with which I used to color her hair. Because of the lower layer levels/masks this adjustment layer only affected the hair.

The usual selective sharpening, finishing touches, etc. and she was ready to bite some necks!

[epmi314]

Nice work Terry.

I think you need to get with Brian and develop an i(whatever) and android app converting regular images to twi-mages! That would be a sure fire winner.

[speedneeder]

tw-iPhoto?
Brilliant!

Terry, I used a similar approach, though a little different. Adjusting and masking for the eyes, desaturation and maski g for he skin tone, then did a bunch of smudging to get rid of all my wrinkles
Yours worked out much better IMO, good job.